This one was a long time coming, and I think my excitement is pretty apparent at the end of the lap.

Waterford Hills is what I would consider my home track...even though I probably have more time/laps on Gingerman at this point. My first track day was here and I feel it was absolutely key in developing my ability and comfort level behind the wheel as quickly as I did. This isn't a place I go for competition, though I'm not saying that I wouldn't, if the opportunity presented itself! When I drive here I'm typically relaxed and enjoying the company of friends, which can lend itself to doing good driver development and setup work.

The last time I improved my PB here was all the way back in September of 2022 (https://youtu.be/PY4xc4kLDIY). I ran this lap on E85 and experienced fuel starve coming out of the final corner, just before the finish line. This landed me at a 1:16.1, and I'd been teetering on the edge of a 15 ever since.

Back to the present and this video, I've been back to running a normal 93 tune and a set of Continental ExtremeContact Force tires. These tires are now a year and a half old and have god knows how many heat cycles on them. I've been struggling with them for the bulk of this season, but I've been pouring so much of my time, energy and resources into my Gridlife effort with the Fit that I haven't been able to justify a new set for the 86. The transmission has also seen better days, with 3rd and 4th both performing inconsistently on upshifts. I stopped running 2nd gear at T3 here specifically to avoid the upshift, so I think that there's still a tenth or two on the table going up the hill. I have a spare transmission ready to be rebuilt and swapped into the car, but again, the Fit has been taking over.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I had absolutely zero expectations of setting a PB on this day. I was just here to have fun and see friends. A couple months back we installed an adjustable front swaybar on the car and I'd been playing with damper settings ever since then, finally settling into what I ran on this day. This was to address the rear end of the car being WAY too active and simply refusing to hook up on corner exits. The bar has been doing it's job but I had still been fighting the same worn out tires.

As soon as I hit the track something was just clicking though. Over the past week and change, I've spent nearly 8 hours on track in 3 different states driving 3 different cars. The weekend before last we won our class and landed P7 overall at Lemons Road America, 3 days after that I was back out at Autobahn Country Club for a long weekend of Gridlife ClubSC, and then it was one day off before this. There was no rust whatsoever and I just came out of the gate completely locked in. This session was probably the most In The Zone I've ever felt behind the wheel of this car, and I couldn't be happier with the results. My first flyer was a mid 16 and I kept building pace across the next few laps until I saw a predictive FIRMLY in the 15s, I was in disbelief and just kept pushing, but I unfortunately caught traffic on the back straight and had to abort. Nice thing about clapped out ECFs is that they don't really have a "window," so I knew I could just cool down for a lap or two and push again. I figured that it was now or never in the first session, despite starting in the afternoon the track still falls off noticeably simply due to the amount of cars running on it,.

I collected myself and set up this flyer. On the back straight I could see it was there, and I consciously stopped myself from pushing any harder from that point, just execute. This resulted in what I feel is the cleanest T6 I've ever driven on this track, and I held steady to bank the lap.

Theoretical best tells me that there was a 15.2 in that session, and later in the day I had some breakthroughs on my brake technique entering T1 that would have definitely been worth a solid chunk on this lap. I'm confident saying that the car has 14s in it as it sits, I honestly have no idea what it might do on fresh/faster tires. Bottom line is I'm reinvigorated to keep pushing!

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2017 Toyota 86
OpenFlash OTS 93 Tune
Borla UEL / Berk Overpipe+Frontpipe / Tanabe Concept G
Fortune Auto 510 (8k F+R) 
Whiteline 20mm Front Swaybar
17x9 +35 Enkei RPF1
255 Continental ExtremeContact Force
Jackson Racing 2-in-1 Radiator+Oil Cooler

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Immortan Automotive: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-n10cHxSF0y5-Z-EaSNrQ
Seb's Garage: https://sebs-garage.com/
Hybrid Racing: https://www.hybrid-racing.com/
Fortune Auto: https://fortune-auto.com/
Cobalt Racing Brakes: https://cobaltbrakes.com/
RoadManners: https://roadmanners.shop/
Robertson Racing: https://robertson-racing.com/
Valkyrie Engineering: https://valkyrieengineering.com/